213 
of the Bay of Bengal. 
the large mouth. Eyes none. No barbel. Villiforai teeth 
in the jaws, vomer, and palate. Gill-membranes rather 
broadly united ; four gills ; eight branchiostegals ; no pseudo- 
branch^. Small deciduous scales on body and head; lateral 
line indistinguishable. Vertical fins confluent ; pectorals 
entire ; ventrals widely separated, each consisting of two 
filaments. 
15. Tauredophidium Hextii , sp. n. (PI. VIII. fig. 1.) 
The soft tissues comparatively firm, and the bones, except 
those of the opercles, strong and compact ; no eyes ; immense 
spines on the opercles. 
B. 8. D. 64. A. 58. V. 2. P. 18. C. 10. 
The trunk much deeper and broader than the tail, its 
length being 2| in the total without the caudal and its height 
about in the same ; the tail low, compressed and acumi- 
nate. 
Head broad, pyramidal, its dorsal outline rising straight 
from the tip of the snout to the occiput at an angle of nearly 
45° ; its length is about one fourth of the total without the 
caudal, its height about |, its breadth about §, of its lengthy 
the cranial bones are compact and resistant, forming a sort of 
buckler in the broad frontal region ; the preoperculum and 
operculum have each an independent lateral ginglymoirl 
motion, allowing the erection of the enormous grooved spines 
with which these bones are armed ; the operculum, which is 
a short narrow bone, carries at its postero-superior angle a 
single straight retrorse spine, measuring half the length of the 
head ; the preoperculum bears three spines, which radiate 
from its angle, the middle one being the longest and nearly 
three fourths the length of the opercular spine ; the occipital 
crest projects subcutaneously as a coarsely pointed eminence, 
and behind it the stout, elongate, first (?) neural spine pro- 
jects similarly but even more conspicuously. The snout is 
broad and rounded, and does not overhang the mouth. The 
eyes are completely atrophied ; the small orbital cavities are 
hidden beneath thick scaly skin, and are filled with connective 
tissue, deeply imbedded in which is a small pigmented ocular 
bulb about the size of an ordinary pin-head. Nostrils large, 
Muciferous cavities of snout and mandible well developed and 
opening to the exterior by pores. Mouth large, its cleft 
nearly horizontal ; maxilla more than half the length of the 
head, much expanded behind, protractile, completely including 
the lower jaw in repose; labial fold absent on the upper, 
Ann . & Mag . N. Hist . Ser. 6. Vol . vi. 16 
